Summer Dresses and Leather Jackets
by Loveforthestory
Summary: When the group finds a house deep in the forest and near a lake at the end of summer, it is Charlie who decides they should stay. Just for a couple of days. A story about summer dresses, leather jackets, summer days, summer nights and Bass remembering summer. Together with her.
1. Part one

**Now fall is coming to my little place on the globe, this is a story to say goodbye to summer and celebrate sun kissed days. A story to give my beloved characters one summer day, near a lake in the forest.**

Summer dresses

1.

Bass feels his shirt cling to his chest. Little drops of sweat are moving from the strong lines of his neck to his chest. He lets the screen door fall behind him, the door closing with a strong sound of wood against the wood of the door. His boots sound heavy in the shadow of the hallway.

He finds the house is not as empty as he had hoped. Something that would be useful now he is going to borrow some of his brother's or Staypufts whiskey.

Her hands are at the nape of her neck, the material of two straps going through her fingers as she tries to make a knot behind her neck. The smooth flowing summer dress she is wearing follows her curves and stops generously above her knees, giving him one hell of a view of her well formed slender strong thighs and the lines of those damn thighs that move up and disappear under the fabric of her dress.

Bass' imagination running fucking wild of what it would be the hell like to lift that dress slowly over those thighs towards her ass and run his hands over her hips under her dress while he would pin her against the kitchen top. His cock already feels her ass, her body pinned against his. He tells his cock to shut the hell up.

It is cool and a little bit darker in the kitchen, the sun outside beating down on the house.

Bass watches her as he walks into the kitchen that already seems to damn small with only her in it. She has moved her normally wild long dark blonde hair in a messy knot on top of her head. A couple of locks have struggled to break free and have won. They are brushing her neck and shoulders like his fingers ache to touch her.

First of all, Charlie is a fucking sight for sore eyes on any given day. All curves, strength, blue eyes, dark blonde curls. Lush fucking lips to taunt him with on a daily basis.

And hell, she knows how to use those lips of hers, Bass thinks with a curse and a fast grin and curl of his lips. Using those lips of her for her smart mouth. Or to form them into a firm line when she is pissed. Or smirk that wide smirk of hers like that time his fucking ex girlfriend gave her the men _he_ came to Vegas for. After said ex told him he was not that good of a lay. A memory his ego is trying to shove out of his fucking mind.

Charlie is a sight for sore eyes on any given miserable day in the endless line of miserable days in the history of ever since they spent their days running and hiding. But today, Bass walks into the kitchen of the house deep in the forest they had found and used for the past couple of days.

The house eventually Charlie had convinced them to stay. Because of the lake, because of its location being far away from any kind of other bullshit. He had watched how his brother had tried to reason with her. But one look at Charlie's eyes, before they had moved over her ass, _hey a man, not a saint,_ had told him his brother in arms and once general over their shared Militia was going to lose that argument from his niece.

She stands with her back towards him and her fingers are struggling with two straps that should go behind her neck. Tanned legs and her bare feet on the kitchen floor tiles catch him of guard. Bass watches the arch of her back. Fuck. She is beautiful.

He walks to her with his hands in his pockets, slowly. He knows she has heard him.

Charlie curses again, this time in her head. She is trying to ignore Monroe who has walked his ass with those heavy boots of his into the house. She is also trying to make a knot with the small cotton straps of her dress that should come together in a knot behind her neck.

It is hot. And her tank and jeans and boots had made her miserable. Clinging on to her skin and giving her no room to breathe. Her long hair down and heavy in her neck only adding to being more miserable.

And Aaron, he had decided they should take a break when they had stumbled upon the house near a cool clear lake, deep in the forest. The water cool and the colour of the sky, the trees providing shade from the Texan heat. Aaron had been mentioning all things pre blackout Charlie loves so much to hear about. BBQ's and ice tea and lazy days near the pool. She had decided Aaron was right and had happily went for a couple of rounds of Matheson arguing with her uncle to make sure they stayed here for a couple of days.

She found the summer dress in a closet upstairs. It follows the line of her body and is perfect. If only she could get those damn straps in a knot behind her back to keep the damn thing up.

She feels Monroe's eyes on her. She has felt them before. She refuses to feel anything those eyes dare to break loose from her. So she does what she always does. Focus on the task at hand.

Which today is a summer dress. She loves it. Her uncle doesn't. He has already been a total idiot, telling her what on earth she was wearing when she had stepped outside the house where Miles had been drinking his whiskey in the shadow of the porch.

She blows a lock of hair from her face.

'Let me help you with that,' Bass' voice is filling the coolness of the kitchen.

Outside the summer crickets are buzzing through the forest and around the lake. His voice is so like him but at the same time lacking the total asshole tone it she is used to from him.

She looks at him over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow. Her lips clenched together somehow.

Bass sees her blue eyes locking with his. He sees how she makes a decision, just looking at her.

Charlie needs to be outside, near that lake, to cool down, to have one day without all the shit that is going on. And the dress is not cooperating. And he is here.

She nods at him shortly. The sound of his boots on the kitchen tiles heavy between her thighs, pulsating and taking form as another swirl low in her belly. He is tall. But she never realised somehow how tall until he is standing right behind her.

His fingers brush the sensitive skin of her neck as they make contact with her skin. They are large and strong and rough skinned. She never felt his fingers there, she never had the time to feel them with every second seeming to stretch out into long moments. Somehow they are everything as Charlie cannot look at him but she feels him tall behind her.

She is bare foot and standing in a summer dress, almost between his thighs. Monroe's thighs.

She tilts her head, giving him access when he ties the straps together. Her fingers brushing the locks of hair away that have escaped her knot of hair, brushing them away to give him, Monroe, all the space he needs.

Bass feels her tense up as he moves the straps into a firm yet gentle nod. He is taking his damn time, not because he does not want to be a fucking gentleman but because she is letting him this fucking close. He cannot help himself. Her skin is soft and tanned and her body, fuck, it feels so good there between his damn thighs.

Charlie curses something inside of her head. The son of a bitch is taking his time. She turns around and looks at the steel burning in his eyes. And then she looks to his face changing into that stupid smirk of his that expects a thank you.

'You are welcome Charlotte.' He teases, a hint of steel blue danger in his voice. His fingers done with the knot, but not done torturing her. Large calloused fingers on the sensitive skin of her neck.

Charlie thinks why that stupid face and smirk of his have to be this close to her face. He somehow has his hand now close to her upper arm, and Charlie swears she felt his fingers brush her skin. But then she realises she is the one being delusional and she realises it was her mind making up those images because Monroe is not touching her. Not anymore. Her mind has created that trail of his hand all on its own.

Miles is however just stepping into the kitchen. And he is real.

Finding his niece next to Bass. Finding Bass too close to his niece.

'What the hell Bass.' His eyes shoot threat Charlie knows so well. She has seen him like this with Jason or Drexel and somehow his eyes are even shooting more death at Monroe.

She immediately steps between Bass and her uncle.

'Why are you touching Charlie?' Miles spits out.

Bass takes a little step away from Charlie, his hands moving to places where Miles can see them. His mind trying to form the words he wishes would come out of his damn mouth faster.

'I wasn't...' he starts, his voice filled with agony. '...just helping her with her dress.'

'It looked to me you were getting her out of the damn thing you moron.' Miles eyes burn dark fire at Bass.

'Hey…hey,' Charlie says in a firm I am taking no bullshit voice. 'Miles, don't give me that. He wasn't. He is helping me with my dress.'

Bass is standing behind Charlie, hell, unable to believe what the hell he is hearing when she defends him so strongly and easily. Miles is about to make some sharp snide remark but Charlie does not let him.

'He did nothing but keep me safe. He never ever touched me. And you know that, Miles. You know he would not cross that line. All he ever did was made sure I was all right.'

Charlie stands right in front of Miles. The words are out there before she can stop herself.

But then she realises it is the truth. And it is long overdue. She should have opened her mouth under that bridge when she had just walked Monroe' ass to Willoughby. _I would not let him touch me_ _was_ everything she had said when Miles accused Monroe of doing things to her Monroe hadn't. In fact he had been an asshole, but never not treated her with respect when it came to that. It was the truth.

She would not have let him touch him in those weeks on the road, even if he had tried. But he hadn't. She hated the implications that she would be weak and let Monroe charm her into taking him with her. It was war. She took him with her because the fight was more important than their bullshit. But he had kept her safe. He had.

And one look at his brother tells Bass, Miles knows she is right. It is the fucking truth.

Charlie looks at Miles and then at Monroe. And then, she grabs her glass and is on her way out of the kitchen. She wants to get outside, get in the shade, drink and just soak up some of this day. Get away from fighting and forget the burn in her belly from Monroe's touch before Miles had interrupted whatever was going on.

'What's that kid?' Miles asks her, nodding to the glass in her hand.

'That is ice tea, just made it with Aaron.'

Miles stops her and takes the glass. He can smell the booze practically from where he is standing.

'Ice tea?' He looks at Charlie who is starting to be not so pissed at him. He looks at Bass who is looking pretty fucking pleased with himself and the way Charlie just stepped up for his sorry ass.

'Well, Aaron may have poured something from his flask into it. We maybe both have.'

Now it is Bass who grabs the glass from Miles, holding it high over her head so Charlie cannot reach it as he takes a gulp from it.

She is fucking adorable in trying to take the glass out of his damn hands. He feels a fucking grin the size of Texas at her frown and protest in her eyes.

'No shit...' Bass smiles at the taste of strong ice tea with whiskey '...Go Staypuft.'

Just because they can, Miles takes the glass from Bass again.

'Good stuff kid.' He takes a long gulp.

Charlie is looking pissed and grabs the glass from Miles as she punches him in the ribs. He and Bass are grinning like a couple of school boys. Charlie isn't.

She grabs the glass with a firm grab, then grabs a book from the kitchen counter and marches her hips out of the kitchen.

'So, she's pissed.' Miles says drily.

Bass and Miles are both locking eyes and are laughing like they had not done in forever.

'Can we please have ONE fucking normal day?' Charlie curses through the hallway, sounding completely pissed off at hearing both men laugh and playing their stupid we are taller than you and are complete assholes because of that game.

'She is serious man.' Bass grins at hearing Charlie curse. She rarely does.

Charlie is almost out on the porch but both men can still hear her mumble in disgust, probably for using their height to mess with her moments before.

'Couple of stupid men trees'

They hear the screen door crash shut.

'Well, let's find Staypuft to see if he has got some more in that flask huh?' Bass grins as he pats Miles on the shoulder who shoves his hand away in annoyance and the show of brotherly affection.

* * *

Bass watches Charlie near the lake. The afternoon sun is pressing heavy on the forest . The smell of grass and sun is hanging above the lake, the sun beating down into the water and creating sharp light reflected from it.

She is laying on her belly in the grass between the house and the lake. Her feet are dangling in the air, one feet lazily playing with the other while she is touching the paper as she turns the pages of her book and the sun is touching her skin.

He is sitting on the porch in the shades from the house with some whisky he had gotten from Staypuft. He is keeping his distance but his eyes are never not on her. And never not on Miles who is standing on the low wooden jetty of the lake with a bottle in his hands. The bottle going to his lips and then lazily dangling next to his thigh again.

The cool blue of the water from the lake reflects the green of the trees around it, high and tall, covering their spot from sight. He knows his brother, he knows those shoulders and he knows Miles, right now he needs some space.

Connor is asleep against a tree a little further ahead, a little grass haulm between his lips he has been chewing on minutes before. Staypuft and Priscilla are sitting close to the lake, talking and laughing about something. Rachel and the old man in the shades of a couple of trees not far from the house.

He watches Charlie. Just as deep in thought as Miles, there in the grass. He barely recognises her like this. But she is still so much her.

It is fucking messed up how she reminds him of long summer days. Of home.

Of his mom making ice tea, of his sisters giggling about the boys they hoped to see at the pool. Cynthia fighting with Angela about why she had borrowed a bikini top or something like that without asking her and not putting it back. He thinks of the scent of BBQ and their back garden in Jasper. He thinks back to the cool of his mom's kitchen. About her flowers in the garden. Her warm eyes that were always home. He thinks back to his dad standing behind the BBQ, giving him his first beer.

He thinks of the summer spend with Miles when they were kids and growing up in the shelter of home. He thinks back about first cigarettes and endless nights of summer.

He thinks back to that one girl he fucked when he was sixteen and green as grass. His hands had been trembling when he had opened the buttons of her shirt. Three thrusts and he was done. She had not cared, just looked at him like he was everything. He had kissed her, she had kissed him back in the shadow of some trees near their town.

And now he watches his kid, Miles and Charlie, the people who are his family on a summer day near a damn lake. And everything _almost_ feels like it should have been. Them. A summer day. A cool beer. Food. Family. Messing around. It hurts so fucking bad he needs to look away.

But then he looks up, and he is just in time to see that Charlie's eyes are not on the pages of her book anymore. He watches her eyes light up when she slowly gets up from her spot in the grass. All lean and strong muscles. And Bass cannot help but grin as he watches how Charlie is sneaking up on Miles who is standing on the edge of the wooden low jetty that is hovering over the water.

* * *

Charlie cannot believe she is getting away with his. Charlie cannot believe Monroe has not been an ass to her, by yelling something to his best buddy to warn him that she is coming for him. She knows where he is sitting. She has felt his eyes. But still, the ass is not warning her uncle. Her uncle is busy with his own thoughts and maybe now looking at her mom too, who has just moved into the water to cool down.

Miles is standing on the jetty, deep in thought and with a bottle in his hand. And close, so close to the edge near the water. Miles looks at her mom who is swimming but looks up to Miles every now and them. Giving her enough opportunity time to sneak up on him. If she plans her next move right, she can take him.

Miles looks at Rachel, her blue eyes more relaxed than he has seen them in a very long time. Hushing some of the worse guilt when it comes to the woman he never could stop to love now she is swimming in the lake. Reminding her of the girl he once met at a BBQ. He is drinking, looking at her and remembering her. Remembering a time when life had been easier. Remembering them.

He drinks, he watches Rachel, soaks her up with the sun, his fingers aching for her and BBQ's and his old guitar. For another, just one more, cold beer at home in Jasper with Bass.

It is hot as hell today and it is probably because all of these things he hears his niece a little bit too late.

Right before she is there to move her foot around Miles' ankle to throw him of balance and move his ass from the jetty into the water, he has heard her, looking over his shoulder. He is surprised but Charlie is fast. Miles has heard his niece walking behind him, but he had not expected this.

Charlie pivots them both and shrieks with a loud laughter that moves over the lake the moment Miles knows what she is doing and fights back.

'Nice try kid.' He says in her ear, grinning now too, his large arm now around her.

They struggle. They fight. Charlie tries to remember every trick in the book Miles taught her. Charlie hears Monroe in the background.

'Get the son of a bitch Charlie.'

Miles' stupid tall body is wrapped around her and her face in a firm line, determined not to lose this.

'Go get him Charlie.' Connor is howling something and Aaron is cheering with him. All for her. She grins a big grin.

Miles has his arm around her neck mid struggle as he shows her who will eventually win this by holding her still against his body. He looks up at the guys who had all gotten up from their places, standing close to their fight now.

Betraying him to cheer for his niece instead of him.

'Seriously?' He says a little out of breath and with a hint of wounded ego and sarcasm at the same time. 'You too Bass?'

'Hey, don't blame me for enjoying watching someone kicking your ass for once.' Bass grins.

Miles is done and prepared to throw his niece in the water. Charlie tries to hold in her laughter but she is failing. She is laughing, another giant shriek that carries all over the water of the lake when Miles finds a ticklish spot, and she is laughing even more. So hard, her stomach hurts.

And then it happens, the jetty moves a bit under their weight and its old age and they both are laughing so hard that neither of them is able to keep their balance or willing to give in. And they both land into the cool water of the lake with cheers from everyone on the land.

When they reach the surface of water gain, Miles has Charlie safely in one arm. The bottle of whiskey in his other hand.

'He saved the girl and the whiskey, sure...' Aaron nods with sarcasm in his words as he watched Miles coming to the surface with Charlie and the bottle of booze.

'Damn straight, the guy know his priorities.' Bass grins at him.

Both men standing together in the grass.

Miles and Charlie look at their family laughing at them. Charlie spits out some water as Miles start to swim them back to shore. But he cannot help himself. He remembers other days, in Jasper. Summer days and kidding around. He locks eyes with Bass for one moment.

Charlie tries to find her balance in the lake as she moves back to land with her uncle.

But right before they make it back to the safety of land, he pivots his body so Charlie lands her ass back into the water again. He has exactly three seconds when she comes up for air before she launches another attack.

It is the moment Bass can only look at her, her hair wet and the fabric of her dress clinging to her skin, following every fucking curve. Miles looks like the brother he once had. The brother his heart is missing with an ache that is almost fucking killing him right there. But then he sees her smile. But then he watches his brother move an arm around Charlie's shoulder. And then, he watches Miles laugh. To her. With her. And then, Miles looks up and finds him, his brother smiling at him.

Bass swallows as he returns Miles' grin. Charlie brings him back to him, right fucking there. So he stands there, near a lake. She catches his eyes and the rest just falls away. He looks at her, across the grass and finds her. Unable to look away from that fucking gorgeous smile of hers, over and over again.

* * *

 **Author's Note Part two will be published very soon, and then this summer day moves into a summer night. The second part of the story with a lot of summer near their house around that forest lake. It is such a joy writing this for them. Having a lot of fun! Thanks for reading! Love from Love**


	2. Part Two

Summer dresses

2.

'Your favourite movie was Grease?' Aaron almost chokes on his meat when he looks at Connor. 'That is what you remember?'

Connor just grins and then almost blushes. 'I am afraid so.' His voice is raspy with the long summer day. Smoothed with the whiskey he shares with his dad.

The booze is flowing easily and so is the conversation around a fire with the sun hanging low. The cooling down brought to them by the night slowly moving in welcome.

Rachel is sitting on the ground in front of Miles who has found a log to sit on. She is a little on Miles' right. Her back is brushing Miles leg. Charlie does not miss the moment where Miles is brushing her moms hair for one moment from her spot near the fire. Bass is sitting next to Connor and across from Priscilla and Aaron. He looks at Charlie every now and then, sitting across from him and Charlie finds herself not feeling like she should look away.

Bass takes another gulp from his whiskey as he feels the ease in which Charlie searches for his eyes every now and then. He cannot look the hell away when she does. The topic at hand is movies and memories, one Charlie loves to drink in with her whisky while she is eating a piece of fresh meat with some fresh fruit as desert.

'Oh I think that is just adorable, Connor. You thought of marrying Sandy?' Charlie grins at Connor. Who is blushing a little bit more.

Connor throws a piece of bread at her. 'It was a good movie, lots of music.' He defends himself.

'Of course it was kid,' Bass grins as he pats his kid on the back, as he gives him the bottle both Monroe men are sharing. Hoping this will not kick start Miles into telling his kid and Charlie all kinds of embarrassing shit from their past.

'Cars, chicks and music, what on earth could go wrong.' Miles mocks Connor with sarcasm and a mock toast with his bottle.

Bass looks at Charlie, eating some fruit she found in the forest while there is some lush of red from the berries on her lips.

The sun is slowly going down and they are all around the fire, eating the meat Charlie has caught earlier. There is fruit, bread and more than enough ice tea that the men won't touch and leave for the ladies.

'So, you are still enjoying this kiddo?' Aaron wants to know when he looks from Connor to Charlie.

Aaron had promised her a good old fashioned BBQ at the end of a day filled with sun, ice tea, a lake in the forest and swimming. Trying to get your uncle into the water of the lake had really worked up her appetite. Her dress had dried up fast in the late afternoon sun. Her hair had dried in lush waves that fell now around her face and over her shoulder. Locks of deep golden blonde, kissed by the sun.

They had a little moment of crisis with a slight disappointment on Charlie's face an hour ago when she had walked outside the kitchen and had looked at the fire and the meat she caught before she had looked at Aaron. She had asked them with a frown if this was a BBQ? Both Monroe men and Miles had just grinned at the frown on Charlie's face.

'Well, I thought a BBQ was very festive, Aaron.' Charlie smiles up at him.

She remembers home and BBQ's as little fragments of memories. A BBQ as warm reminder of home and something she remembers she loved so much. Gardens, staying up real late, summer light, summer sun. The scent of summer on her skin right before her dad tucked her while she was in bed already on her way to being asleep.

'Turns out that preparing meat outdoors under the night sky over a fire is something I have been doing all my life.' Charlie smiles, full with the food and a day she gets to spend with them, with all of them, now around a fire.

'Yeah, we just called that a BBQ...' Aaron starts.

'And did it for fun...' Priscilla laughs as she completes Aaron's line.

'Well, I guess it is fun.' Charlie has to admit.

She demands the bottle from Monroe when she reaches out her arm to him. Bass has to bite the inside of her cheek at her directness, to stop the grin that is coming out. Another Miles, a Mini Miles, to steal his damn whiskey.

He sighs. And then he hears Connor on his right.

'You always tell me to treat the ladies with respect, dad.' Connor starts.

Bass just grunts something under his breath but still gives it to her with a warm but still challenging smile in his eyes. She just frowns at him as he is a bit reluctant to share his bottle.

'What? You stole my ice tea this morning, Monroe.'

He watches how Charlie puts the bottle to her fucking lips.

'Damn Mini Miles.' He curses with a low voice that moves across the fire and straight to Charlie's chest like the whiskey she is now drinking does.

'Heard that, you prick.' Miles says, but with amusement in his eyes.

Charlie just starts to grin, a lazy happy one, Bass wishes she showed them fucking often.

'Ah look at you Monroe. I think we both agree that Miles is pretty damn amazing.' She tilts her head slightly and gives him that Matheson glare. 'So you calling me a Mini Miles is the nicest thing you have ever said to me.'

She says with the buzz of alcohol in her belly.

Bass just grins, wide and warm at her, as she returns the bottle he takes back from her. Charlie watches how he puts the bottle against his mouth. A warm bolt through her belly when she watches him touching the glass her lips touched just seconds before.

* * *

Bass has his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He walks to the lake and he is taking his time. She is sitting on the jetty, the palms of her hands on the wood of the jetty, her back slightly arched back. Her feet are dangling over the jetty with her feet in the water. She is making lazy circles through the water. The lazy sunset is casting light on her dark blonde curls.

She has found a silent spot near the river away from everybody else. But he has found her. He somehow always does.

Bass knows they are still what they are. But somehow today they are also a girl on a jetty on a summer day with a blush on her cheek and tanned slightly burned shoulders from the sun and a guy trying to impress her. Maybe just a bit.

'Got some room for one more?' His voice is raspy as his eyes are anywhere but on her. He looks at a spot on the horizon, over the lake.

Charlie looks up at him, moving a hand against the last low hanging rays of the sun so she can look up to see him. And then she smiles. She fucking smiles.

'Sure.'

Bass moves next to her. One hand behind him to support him. His body slightly turned to her. Not because he planned that, but because his whole body seems to have the fucking bad idea to turn her way. He watches how she is lazily moving her feet though the water. The sound of the water rippling against her skin so damn close. The curve of her calves damn beautiful. Her legs long and the fabric of her dress ending way above her knees.

'Not going to throw me in?' Bass looks at the water, his mind with her.

'Nah, I think I am done for today.'

He looks at her, as she looks at him. 'One moron at the time.' She smirks at him. Bass fights the urge to kiss her. Just one soft kiss on the tip of her nose.

When he grins and starts to untie his boots, Charlie looks at him, raising her eyebrows. 'What are you doing?'

'What does it look like huh?' He gets out of his other boot and lets his bare feet slide into the water after he curls up the sleeves of his pants. The water is fucking cool. 'This is summer in Texas, It is fucking hot and miserable.'

'All right then, we might agree on something Monroe.'

She watches how he almost smiles shyly at her. And then his face turns more serious, his eyes searching for her like he needs to find her for what he is saying next.

'Didn't we agree on more than that, Charlotte.' His voice is barely a whisper.

Charlie's heart beats faster all of sudden, licking her bottom lip. A gesture Bass does not miss. He knows her, he knows Miles. He knows he has touched something important to her.

'Like what?' She does not stop looking at him.

'Like we do not leave the other behind. No matter how fucked up everything is, we don't.' His voice drops to an even lower meaningful place at the end of his line. Adding emphasis on the word we.

Charlie has trouble swallowing, his words buzzing through her chest like the crickets in the night air.

It is the truth. They don't. They do fight. They do not leave the other behind. They come back. They stay. They fight.

She can only nod, looking from his eyes to his lips and back to his eyes again, that never seem to let her go.

'I guess so...' her voice is a bit husky from the sun kissed day and all the talking and laughing all packed in this one rare day. A day she does not want to end. Not just yet.

And then, Monroe does what he always does. Let her be, give her space, let her breath. Watching her, giving her room to just sit and be. He is not an asshole, he does not push her. He just shares a jetty and a sunset with her.

Bass looks at the change in her eyes. Giving him some kind of peace for just fucking now.

Her eyes are filled with summer lightness. Her shoulders relaxed. Her hair in soft waves around her face. Lush from the water in the lake and drying up in the sun.

Their feet are close in the water of the lake. He looks at her, a stupid almost happy grin on his face. Charlie cannot look away at so much lightness on a face torn with time.

They are sitting on the low wooden jetty together. Their contours against the sky on fire from the sunset. His taller shoulders next to her smaller ones.

He hears her sigh.

He is done some stupid shit. But there is always room for more, Bass thinks. He slowly moves his arm around her neck. His hand moves to her shoulder as his fingers brush the tanned bare skin of her upper arm. His heart beating like he was fucking fourteen again and thinking about a first move involving a girl he really likes.

He waits. She does not look at him like he has lost his fucking mind. She does not tell him he is delusional. She does not run to get her crossbow and fucking kill him.

No, today, Charlie Matheson leans into him, into his touch. She lets him touch her.

They watch the sun set. Move their feet through cool water. Listen the sounds of the forest. Watch the colours change in the sky to golden orange.

Bass adjusts his body slightly next to hers. He moves the arm away from her neck, not wanting to push her. He places his hands a little bit behind his back, his palm next to hears on the wood of the jetty. She moves in a bit close without moving from her spot. She just finds the nook he has created for her, next to his body.

When there is only a strip of bright light on the horizon in deep blue and the forest is asleep, the lake before them is quiet and calm, Charlie gets up.

She looks at Monroe. She almost feels the urge to reach out, move a finger over his beard. Run her fingers through his hairs. Touch him. But she just smiles.

'Goodnight Bass.'

He cannot keep the stupid grin of his face at hearing his nickname from her. Bass. Finally. Bass.

'Night Charlie.'

Her dress brushes his upper arm in the breeze of the night right before he watches her walk away to the house, bare feet in the wet grass. And it is all her, all her on his damn mind. A summer night, near a lake, with this one girl within his reach.

* * *

One hour later, on a little mattress in her summer dress she refuses to get out of, Charlie can't sleep. The house is too small and there are too many people in it. He isn't. She knows him, his step, his boots He is still out there. And she realises she does not want this summer day and night to end. Not yet. She longs for that nook against his body again. Her thoughts with him. She gets up from her sleeping stretcher in a small room. It is dark, and late.

When she walks outside the house and her feet move down the steps of the porch she sees the stars from the night sky reflected in the lake. The night brings cooler air and the grass under her feet is wet. She looks up at the stars and the nightly sounds moving around the lake. The water surface is cool and without ripples.

And then, she sees him. The man that has been keeping her awake. The man who's fingers she still can feel on her skin.

* * *

Bass has not been able to get any fucking sleep. He has tried, or no that is a lie. He had watched the lake and thought about her, about her smaller body tucked into the nook of his arm. Charlie so damn close he could smell the summer on her.

Eventually he had called it a night and had walked out of the house after Connor fell asleep.

He found this spot under the trees. He is leaning into it, to restless to get any sleep. And of course, she finds him. She always does.

She walks up to him.

'Could not sleep huh?' He looks at the house in the distance and then looks back at her.

Charlie follows him with her eyes. 'Nah, not with all of them in there.'

He spreads his arms, and looks at her with a small grin 'Care for a drink?'

He shows her the flask he has been keeping close for the past hour.

'You stole that one from Aaron.' Charlie is slightly pissed.

'No, I borrowed it. Something completely else.' Bass smirks. He presses his lips together. He reaches out his flask to her.

'Come on Charlotte, want to be bad together?' Bass' voice reaches her and almost makes her shiver.

Instead of ranting at him Charlie smiles a bit and then takes the flask.

'Give me that.' Charlie smirks.

And then she frowns and looks serious when he is looking at her. 'What, you do not think I can be bad, Monroe?' She moves down next to him, thigh against thigh. Side against side.

Bass watches Charlie, the spitting challenge in her eyes that are still smiling at him.

'You tell me Charlie...' His eyes are burning into her but his voice is gentle. His fingers touch her cheek.

And then she wants to taste the whisky from her own lips on his'.

She reaches out as his hand is waiting for her, cupping her cheek as Bass is kissing her with an easy and gentleness that spins her inside around completely in surprise.

They build the kiss. Moment by moment, touch by touch. He feels steady next to her. He moves the flask out of her hand as he feels his cock wanting to take her and his damn heart wanting to show her what he can be for her if she lets him.

He moves her to his leather jacket on the ground slowly, feeling how she relaxes into him and how she lets him move her where he needs them to be.

Charlie feels the cool of his leather against her back. His arms are strong when they effortlessly move her back to his jacket. His touch is gentle.

'Always a gentleman, right...Bass?' She grins, trying out his name again.

She sees the effect she has on him, when she finally uses his nickname again. It is giving her warmth and power at the same time.

'Already told you once I am,' He kisses her urgently. 'When it comes to you Charlotte, I am. You deserve nothing less than that.'

She smiles at the smooth line, but she also knows it is the truth.

It is a dangerous personal game here, on this summer night with flirtation and exploration under the cool branches of the trees near the lake. The grass cool around them, the moss soft as she can hear and feel the cool of the water in the lake near them closeby.

Charlie remembers something else, something she has read about.

'Aren't you supposed to at least try to take me skinny dipping?'

His laughter rolls through his chest. She watches his face, completely stunned and mesmerised by his smile that reaches low to her belly and pounces through the defences around her heart.

'I have some other plans with you first Charlie.' He grins that low husky grin of him. 'But we can definitely do that later. ' He grunts, deciding right there and then it is going to fucking happen.

It is a bright night at the end of summer. Charlie is in her summer dress. She is in the grass, on his leather jacket. The lake near, and she is being kissed under the cover of trees and stars by a guy. By Monroe. By Bass. She kisses him back as he frames her head with his hands, pulling her closer and into the kiss.

She feels the stupid tears before she can stop them.

Bass stops, worried out of his damn mind for her, his mind racing for what he could have done wrong.

'Charlotte...what is it...' His face is close to hers as his arm is around her back, refusing to let her go, wanting to hold her close.

'It's just...' Charlie bites her lip.

'Hey...' his voice is soothing and so him, 'Charlie...there is nothing you cannot tell me...' His eyes are filled with worry for her tears.

'It's just...I wanted one normal day Bass... one normal day...One tear moves over her cheek and leaves a path of wet relief.

Her tears give away how much this between them means, how much this day meant to her. A day of summer. One day or normal and family and food and booze and laughter. Of being free.

His heart breaks for her, right fucking there. He knows, he knows she craves for a life he and Miles got to have before the blackout. Summer, booze, fun, falling for someone. This moment they are having right here. He wished he could give her something, endless nights and summer she craves for.

Charlie watches something she has not found in his eyes, or maybe she has before but she did not allow herself to feel it. It is empathy. And care. And he brushes her tear away with the back of his hand. She entangles her leg with his, moving it and letting it disappear between his thighs as she allows herself to feel his chest close.

He kisses her again, unwilling to waste anymore time now he has her here with him.

When he stops kissing he just looks at her. Her fingers move lower to his pants, playing with the strip of skin and the hard smooth muscles right under his skin. Feeling the little hairs that move from his pants to his belly button.

He reaches behind her neck, as he gently moves away her hair. Bass is now slowly opening the knot he made himself behind her neck this morning in the cool kitchen.

Charlie watches him as she keeps on stroking his stomach and chest, every now and then going lower to tease his growing cock inside his pants.

Bass looks at her like no man has ever looked at her. It is almost too much but he keeps her there, in the way his other arm is still holding her against him. When he has opened the knot behind her neck the dress slowly falls open. Revealing her neck and chest and breasts right before him.

She watches him when he is watching her. She sees how he is cursing something in his head. He makes her feel in control and desired at the same time. His mouth is wet when it moves over her left breasts. Her hands find his cock through his pants.

He moves a hand over her knee. And finally, fuck finally he gets to move up the fabric of her dress. Taking his damn time to make a trail with his fingers over her leg all the way to her thigh, finding her warm and already wet. Wet for him. It beats powerfully in his chest.

He never stops kissing her. She arches her back against him, lifting herself from the ground as he finds her clit.

She needs more to hold, to feel. She opens his zipper and she feels the exact moment in his body when he feels her hand wrapped around his cock. His breath hitches, his eyes are blue fire and his jaw locks, his fingers do not stop moving but there is an urgency, intense and with fire, when he moves deeper into her wet warmth.

Right before he enters her and makes her gasp with lust and surprise he kisses the skin behind and right under her ear.

'Hell, you remind me why I love summer Charlotte.'

And she just smiles that slow lazy smile of hers. 'Show me summer, Bass.'

She digs his fingers into the leather of his jacket under her to brace herself right before Bass makes her come, for feeling him where this summer night leads them now.

And he does, he shows her summer like she has reminded him of summer. With his girl in his arms, near a lake, on a warm summer night in the grass. His lips on her, her body close, while he shows her summer over and over again.

* * *

 **Author's Note My muse screamed something about skinny dipping at the end, so maybe I will write a Charloe skinny dipping epilogue ? Thanks for reading... Love from Love**


	3. Part Three

Summer dresses

3.

After the jacket, _his jacket_ , after another orgasm, after cool night air that is still warm enough to not make her shiver, _although that could be his wide chest and burning eyes too_ , he still has not enough of her.

Charlie watches Bass. He _is_ Bass. Her mind and heart cannot connect with _Monroe_ anymore to match the man in front of her.

He took care of her in ways she never had been. Dark, eager, desire. He still has that look in his eyes in between more gentle blue that moved into his eyes after his own release on her belly. It is a look that makes her core want to find his.

He was smug and kind and patient and eager when he thrusted inside of her with slow pushes that moved into fast dark ones, until she found release in the summer grass, on his leather jacket and in his arms.

Bass feels her arm against his chest as she eases into him as he reminds certain parts of him that he is not sixteen anymore.

'Good for you?' His voice is barely a low rolling whisper.

Charlie feels the old habit of yanking his chain but there is something in the way he presses his lips together that keeps her from choosing that route. She finds an almost Monroe unlike insecurity in his eyes. She moves his hand to his scruff, wanting to explore it lazily when she is laying against his side, him resting on his elbow and close to her. Her fingers caress the line of his jaw, his stubble and moustache.

'Yeah..' her voice is raw and open, softer than she remembers her own voice. She sighs and nods her head yes. She looks at him and smiles. 'So good, Bass.'

She watches his whole face change, and she is not sure it her new responding to him or the fact she just used his nickname. Either way, he breaks open right in front of her and she knows it is the moment her heart is in trouble. It is the moment where Monroe becomes Bass to her. Just like her, with a torn and wounded heart, trying to make his way, just trying to soak up everything else that threw this blackout world in their face.

Bass watches her, not sure he is able to move without making a damn fool of himself, as he already feels something salty sting in his damn eyes. The fact that she not made a mockery of his heart too fucking much. His cock already responding to her smile and her willingness to not look away from him.

Charlie feels the touch of his hardness against her thigh when she watches him as open as he has ever been to her. Literally skin to skin. So he lets her fingers move over his beard as he watches her, her watching him. Charlie feels the leather jacket under her back. It is warm and has the same temperature as her skin now. She sees the starts above her, peeking through the branches of the trees every now and then.

He needs a fucking breath. But somehow his body has completely different ideas. Needing her not only because he craves to taste her and give her everything back she threw in his face, just by locking eyes with him all these months on the road. Hell. She is different but still her somehow. Making him hard with one smirk around those lips and those strong thighs around his legs.

She does not talk when she got up. Bass watches the curve of her back that moves into her ass and hips and legs when she walks away from him in the nightly light. She moves her feet over the green soft moss and to the edge of the lake, waiting at the tree line before him, the water now smooth under the last branches that are almost reaching the water.

When she reaches the water she moves her head towards him. He feels his dick stir again when she looks at him freely. Her hair, softly flowing around her shoulders. The angle of her body giving him a view of her tits, softly visible as contours against the night sky.

She sighs. The water cool before her. Dawn moving in on them. She can feel it deep inside of the forest and herself.

Charlie feels how the summer day that has moved into a summer night and being fucked by him on the summer grass moves slowly into a new day. She wishes she could grab time and let it be with them for a while.

Bass watches how she looks to the water, her thoughts so far away from him and then she walks into the water. He is going to make this last as long as he can. He pushes himself up and follows her.

Charlie is slowly walking into the water, turning to him and watching him with a slow smile when she lets her back glide into the water and lets herself float on her back. She hears Bass get into the water when bright stars shine way above her, endlessly high. The water cool around her body, the surface of the lake calm an carrying her, and just for them somehow.

Bass lets her float, until he cannot hold back. When he reaches her she moves her head up, her body in the water, the water now reaching her shoulders. He slowly grabs her arm and entangles an arm around her back. He pushes her through the resistance of the water to him. To where he can have her.

She smiles to him and he grins back, somehow Miles' voice in his head calling him a fucking idiot for staring and smiling this stupid smile to her like some love struck teenager. But he cannot stop. He moves his arms around her. Charlie feels Bass taking her where he needs her to be.

She almost wants to hang on to whatever she is feeling now. But she can't. SO she holds on to him. her body against his, their height difference invisible in the water. Her head a little bit lower than his, her body never-ending for her to hold on to.

He smirks. His heart more free than it has been for so long. He feels the shift in the air, the feels the colour almost change in the sky above and around him.

Bass feels her weight in his arms. And then her smile disappears. He feels a slow almost painful sigh breaking free from her chest. And he fucking knows why it is there. This world and their lives will demand everything of them in only a couple of hours.

And hell, right there he wishes he could chance it all. Not for himself this time, not for power or control or everything that has been pulsating through his veins the past decade.

He wants, _craves_ , fucking needs things to be different for her. For Charlie. He wished he could give it all the hell to her.

He does not speak. Charlie just watches him as a storm of feelings wash over her, in the cool and calm of the water and the shield of his chest and arms. Feelings of how it could have been, of not wanting to let go.

He wishes he had words of comfort but he can't. He hasn't. So instead he kisses her, gently, on her forehead.

Charlie has her eyes still closed. And when Bass kisses her forehead before another of his kisses reaches her temple, his lips warm and strong, she opens them to find his eyes.

And then, something lifts inside of her. They cannot stay here, she knows. But she is here now. He is here now. They both are.

Bass moves his forehead to hers, when she allows him there. She moves one of her legs around his middle and he catches her with one hand. Touching foreheads move into kisses. Eager kisses. Needing to make it last when the stars shine harder in this last hour of the night. Deep lighter blue touching the tops of the trees. The air slow and cool and sharp.

She kisses him again and feels her thighs responding to him. And then, skin wet with water, she slips. She tries to hold on to him but loses her balance somehow. Splashing into the water. She huffs in annoyance but then giggles at the whole situation as Bass catches her wide a wide grin and a low roll of his laughter in his chest moving through the water to reach her. She moves her fingers to and around his wide upper arms.

'Doing all of this in the water _can_ be a challenge,' Bass grins with a boyish smirk around his eyes, making the lines around his eyes move with his smile. To not further piss her of her presses a kiss to her temple, holding her close again in the water. Her breasts against his chest, her body so damn small and fucking good where he can hold her in his arms.

Charlie rolls her eyes at him. Bass pulls her closer. His arm steadying around her back.

'Lucky for you...' He kisses her temple, her nose, her forehead, 'I have a lot of experience.' His voice is low and filled with ego.

'Yeah, I bet...after all those many woman you..' Charlie starts but she cannot finish her sentence because Bass moves his right hand around her cheek and pulls her close. Slowly, gently. Grinning against her lips because she will never walk away from telling him exactly what she thinks.

For once, she lets him be his smug self, because he is doing things to her with that warm cup of his hand wrapped around her face and his thighs close to her core that make her sigh and give in.

She will give him hell tomorrow.

She feels the water of the lake around them. Her hair is wet against her shoulders. The water has moved his hair in deep dark blonde against his neck. Wild curls still manage to escape. The water drops from the curls at the base of his neck. The light of the stars in the water reflecting from his wet tanned skin, the muscles under it moving with his kisses.

His chest, wet and warmth radiating through the water from his skin against her breasts. His arms around her. Her legs around his middle. Her centre rubbing the curls above his cock. The lazy sounds of the water as he moves her through it around them. Warm skin, cool water.

The reflection of the stars in the water and in his eyes and her. The dawn is slowly revealing itself on the horizon. A strip of less deeper blue than the rest of the night sky. And her with Bass in the water, searching for the other, slowly moving through the water with his arms around his neck. His leather jacket next to her summer dress. Her knife next to his gun in the grass nearby.

* * *

One last slow kiss in the first light of the morning. Dawn around them when all there is, is his taste, his tongue, his lips, his scruff. The forest waking up, the house and the people a bit further ahead silent. She is in her dress again, he is back in his pants, boots and leather jacket. She grabs the leather as she pulls in to taste him.

She does not say anything. He doesn't speak. He just caresses her cheek and his other hand is pressing gently into her lower back, pushing his body into hers when he wants to let her taste him one more time.

Then she takes a step back, a grin that is so much Charlie, a warm lazy smile smirk grin, spreads around her lips and moves to her eyes as she bites her bottom lips. Bass just smirks, tasting her still on his damn lips.

Charlie slowly walks to the house. The scents of the grass, the water of lake and the bark of the trees sharply around her. The morning air just before sunrise always so rich in its coolness around her. She feels his eyes.

And there, when nightly dark gives way to early morning deep blue, she sees him when she turns around. The first beam of the sun now coming over the line of trees. Her bare feet on the bare wooden steps of the porch. Finding him right before she walks in. He is leaning against a tree under the shades of the leaves.

Bass watches her, her body moving in the first light of day. Curves and slender muscles he knows so damn well now. He knows what it is like to touch her, to feel her. To get to taste her and make her come over and over again. What it is like when Charlie lets you in. It is dangerous and personal and addictive and so fucking right.

He had forgotten about nights like these and whatever the hell she gave him. Until he had walked in on her in the cool of the kitchen, fighting with the straps of her dress. Until he had watched Miles and Charlie in a battle for balance before they both went in the water of the lake, howling with laughter. Until she made him remember summer.

Until he gave her a chance to taste simmer and she asked him to show her summer. Until yesterday. Until that yesterday moved into today and him having her close. On his leather jacket, against that tree. In the water. Her legs around his hips. And she fucking blew him away.

He wishes he could crash in that bed of hers, fall asleep with her shoulder blades against his chest, his nose finding her neck. Finding his scent back on her skin in that low rich scent of morning between lovers in bed.

He also knows they can't. Not here, not now. Maybe one day, soon. When autumn and winter brings them to spring and spring leads them to summer again.

They lock eyes. Charlie watches Bass watch her. He gives her a stare with eyes filled with blue he saves for her. And Bass watches her give him a soft smile that he fucking knows is just for him. Warm and soft like the water in the lake, reflecting the first rays of sun in them.

When she turns around to walk inside, she knows he is still there. Bass is there.

The cool air of the early summer morning brings crisp coolness. Her window is open. Her eyes heavy. Her bed waiting,. Her hair slightly wet from the water of the lake when she moves in to her bed. Her skin tingling from him. Her heart warmed with summer, summer he showed her. Only her. Over and over again.

Finally, as birds fill the forest outside, she falls asleep. Knowing he is out there. Charlie can still feel the comfort of his lips on her mouth. Knowing what it can be like. Knowing what he can be like.

Knowing what summer can be.

Her summer dress over a chair in the corner of the room that is slowly illuminated with the early pale and warm morning light, the fabric slowly moving with the first morning breeze. She will take it with her. Take it through autumn that is slowly rolling in winter later. Take it with her through that long harsh winter. To spring that will finally lead to summer again. A summer of them. Of summer dresses and leather jackets.

 _The end...but to be continued in many other stories..._

* * *

 **Author's Note This was the 'epilogue' I felt I wanted to include, one more look into the story, when the summer night took Bass and Charlie to the morning after their night of summer. And the summer night moves into the summer morning again...with a promise in the dawn of more summer moments for them. Later. Thank you so much for reading and all your support, you are all amazing! Love from Love**


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